President Barack Obama’s unusual fundraising ploy where he asks couples to request campaign donations from their guests in lieu of wedding gifts has proven to be unsuccessful.

The online initiative called the Event Registry, which was launched in late June, has been roundly ridiculed by wedding planners and couples alike, while popular social media sites have largely ignored it, although the president has 27million fans on Facebook.

‘The number of links and stories about the announcement is very low since the news went live on June 22,’ Meredith Klee, a spokeswoman for the social-media tracking firm Topsy, told the New York Post.

Fundraiser: President Obama's campaign launched an event registry in June asking brides to request campaign donations from wedding guests in lieu of gifts

The registry was unveiled to little fanfare the same month that Mr Obama raised just $71million to Republican Mitt Romney’s $100million.

‘It’s a gift that we can all appreciate — and goes a lot further than a gravy bowl,’ said campaign staffer Laura Wilson while announcing the initiative.

But wedding industry professionals called the ploy tasteless and absurd.

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Jeannie Uyanik, executive director of the New York-based wedding planning company C&G Weddings LLC, has dismissed the idea of the registry as inappropriate.

In phone interview with the Daily Mail, Uyanik said that in the 15 years she has been planning weddings, only one staunchly Republican couple had suggested that their wedding guests contribute money to the GOP.

However, Uyanik said, that idea was summarily rejected in the end.

Flop: Brides have not taken to the idea of asking their guests to give money to Obama's campaign, with some calling the ploy 'tacky'

‘Overall, it’s not going to happen,’ she added. ‘It can be very upsetting to the families and guests.’

Uyanik predicted that none of her clients would ever consider embracing Obama’s fundraising plan, saying that it is ‘divisive’ at a time when people are supposed to be coming together.

One online user wrote on the registry's message board, ‘Is this what the office of the President of the United
States has come to? Pandering for wedding and birthday money?’

Other commenters called the move ‘tacky’ and ‘showing no class.’

However, Carol Campanella, with Fabulous Weddings New York, said she believes many politically motivated couples wouldn't mind the idea.

'Some couples choose not to receive gifts, but instead would rather their guests contribute to a special cause that they feel very strongly about,' Campanella wrote in an email message to the Daily Mail.

Mad money: Obama, right, has so far raised $552.5million, giving him a 44 per cent lead over Romney’s, left, total haul of $394.9million

'To some it may be cancer, AIDS, the homeless...the list is long. To others it may be to keep the president we have now in office!'

Campanella pointed out that if a couple decides to join the Obama registry, it is likely that the majority of their family and friends are already familiar with their strong political views, and therefore would not be surprised by the request.

While many Republicans have dismissed the president’s marriage-themed scheme as a desperate attempt to raise money among his supporters, the latest figures from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) tell a different story.

According to reports filed by the FEC, Obama has so far raised $552.5million, giving him a 44 per cent lead over Romney’s total haul of $394.9million.